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.cb SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FROM COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

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%3Abstract:%1 The real "computer revolution" hasn't happened yet, because
people  don't yet  use computers  in  their daily  lives.   When most
people have ⊗home  ⊗computer ⊗terminals with access  to all the  world's
public  information, it  will revolutionize  the way  we conduct  our
personal business,  the way we learn new skills, the way we read, the
way information is published  and sold, the conduct of  political and
other controversy, and how we decide what to buy.

#. Development of time-sharing computer systems

	Von Neumann's 1946 report proposing the development of a computer
undertook to prove that there were enough scientific and engineering
problems to justify at least one high speed electronic computer.  In order
to do this, he outlined programs for enough problems to keep the computer
busy.  It was expected that after the programs were debugged, the computer
would spend its time almost all the time computing away with occasional
output on a primitive numeric printer.

	The first commercial computers worked from cards punched with
transactions and magnetic tapes containing records.  For example, a
company would keep its accounts on magnetic tape and would punch each
week's customer purchases and account payments on cards.  The computer
run would print reports and bills and update the status of the accounts.
Much commercial computing is still done this way.

	In the late fifties, time-sharing systems were proposed in
which each computer user would have a display terminal on his desk
and perhaps another at home.  The computer would be interrupted
whenever someone hit a key and would cycle its computing among the
users demanding service in a round robin.  It was envisaged
that a computer could provide interactive service to hundreds of users.
Also the applications were different.

	A major impetus was artificial intelligence research which
required that a user interact actively with a program he was trying
to make behave intelligently.  The idea that a scientist would
prepare his papers on the computer and would keep both drafts being
worked on and finished papers in the machine was also present.  The
first on-line editor program, called %2Expensive Typewriter%1
was developed about 1960.

	Today time-sharing is well developed, and inexpensive
stand-alone computers also exist.  The stand-alones are cost-effective
for preparing documents, but they don't have the fancy printing
or large file storage or communication features of the time-sharing
systems.